I am not the master of metering

[Gina9942]

I took my kids to the park yesterday as it ended up being almost 60 degrees, in December!! I shot this of my son. I think he looks a little underexposed. How would I meter this to get him and the sky both in perfect exposure? I always have problem metering people in front of bright backgrounds and getting both the subject and bg in the right exposure. Any suggestions? Tips? Tricks? If I used my flash as a fill flash would that have work?



Also I do not have my exif data on my as I forgot to bring the original file to work today and this was uploaded from another site to my flickr, that's also why it looks a little blurry. I will add that later if that is ok.

TIA

[Skyyton]

When the background is brighter than the subject, you want to get your meter reading on the background. Then you can use fill flash for the subject.

[Gina9942]

So I would use my meter to get the background in the correct exposure then use my flash on the subject? Okay thank you so much. I am going to try this. For some reason, I can just never get it right.

[kencaleno]

Ideal shot for use of Graduated Neutral density filter,but if you don't have one:

Camera on tripod
Expose for highlights-take a shot
Expose for shadows-take a shot ; Then in Photoshop:
Add highlight image to shadow image as a new layer (hold “shift” and drag move tool)
Select> Color Range, Click “highlights” check “invert”, click “OK”
Add layer mask.
Filter> Blur> Gaussian Blur 250 pixels.
Flatten and save.

What I did to your shot:

Add adjustment layer> levels
Drag right slider to left
Drag middle slider to left (These moves enable you to get the ground or sea how you want it)
Press “D” or "X" to make foreground color black
Press “G” for gradient
Choose linear gradient -black to transparent-2nd icon from left
Drag cursor from top of image down to horizon
flatten/save
Regards, Ken

[Gina9942]

Thank you Ken. I am going to look into that filter, maybe it will be worth having around.

[i speak in math]

GND filter would not help here unless you want the top half/face dark and the bottom half/legs properly exposed. I don't think that is your intention. The filter doesn't have a "gap" where your subject is.

[irieness]

Ken Caleno has one way, but I develop a different style since I hardly use fill flash.

If you have a circular polarizer, you can use it just a little bit to darken the sky. However the effect would be minimal if the sun is low and in front of you.

For portraits, I like to use a reflector. If you like making lots of outside portraits, I would recommend you to get a nice reflector with different slips (gold, white, black and silver). It's cheap and great, but you do need someone extra to assist you (to hold it).

Now here is the tricky part, instead of metering the sky, I meter a greyish/dark part of the person. I remember the exposure, then refocus with setting an exposure bias from the last metering. I usually get a bit lighter shots, but you could always darken it in post processing. From my experience it is easier to darken in post processing than lighten.

If you find that post processing saves you more time, then I would advise using Ken's technique. Cheers!!

[Gina9942]

As much as I love photoshop I would prefer to get the pics right in camera and only use photoshop for creative processing. I am going to look into the reflector, I like the idea of getting one with the inserts. B&H is up the block from me so maybe I will take a walk over there and see what they have. I have been using a piece of white oak tag if I knew I was going to be shooting, this just ended up being a spur of the moment thing. Thanks everyone for your comments.

[denja]

I understand your desire for OOC correctness, but in my opinion there is no way in some situations to meter perfectly for all subjects. If Ansel Adams had never dodged or burnt a print, his body of work as we know it would have been much smaller. I took the liberty of just doing some selective dodging on your image, and this is what I came up with. If you want me to take it down, let me know, otherwise let me know what you think.

Jim